Casio Exilim EX-S600

Connectivity
Software (6.5)
The EX-S600 ships with Photo Loader and Photo Hands. The software allows the user to download images, organize them, edit, and print them, as well as prep images to send via email. Both programs are clumsy and difficult to use. Photo Hands uses an animal metaphor for its interface (clicking on different animals activates different functions), which wastes a lot of screen space. It's annoying for experienced users, and probably confusing for beginners. Ulead movie Wizard is also included, with an inducement to upgrade to VideoStudio for video editing.

Jacks, Ports, Plugs (6.0)
The EX-S600's dock has USB, analog video out, and DC power in for charging the battery. The camera's connection to the dock handles all those connections.

Direct Print Options (7.0)
The EX-S600 is both PictBridge and DPOF compatible. It can print directly to PictBridge printers, or save a DPOF print order to download at a lab or printer kiosk.

Battery (7.0)
Casio says the rechargeable lithium-ion battery will take 300 stills on a charge, or shoot 1 hour 50 minutes of video. That's an impressive battery life for a camera as small as the EX-S600. We did not precisely test those claims, but we did not need to recharge the battery to complete our routine testing.

Memory (3.75)
The EX-S600 has 8.3 megabytes of internal memory and accepts SD memory cards. SD memory cards have become the most popular media format for compact cameras. They are available in a wide variety of sizes, and are often less expensive than less-popular formats.

Other Features (8.0)
Anti-Shake Mode - Casio touts an anti-shake mode, rather than optical image stabilization in its lens. Instead, the camera boosts ISO to allow higher shutter speeds to limit motion blur. Casio also claims the S600 employs a new noise reduction algorithm to reduce noise at higher ISO speeds.

Playback Roulette - The EX-S600 does a fast, random slide show through the images in memory if the user starts it up by pressing and holding the Playback and Left buttons simultaneously. The show stops on a random image.

Three-shot self-timer - The EX-S600's self-timer can be set to shoot three images after a 10-second delay.

World time settings - Perhaps an echo of Casio's dominance in the digital watch market, the EX-S600 knows the time in 162 cities in 32 time zones.

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